OPM 217(8), September 19th (2004 & 2014) Meditation, Being and Learning pp. 213-214

There are indeed oak trees on Sappho’s island of Lesbos, or Lesvos and it seems to be more commonly transliterated.  But the island is most known, these days, for its olive trees.  12 million are estimated to be planted on the island’s eastern side.  The western side of the island is described by Fodors as “filled with oak trees, sheep pastures, rocky outcrops and mountains.  Wildflowers and grain cover the valleys, and the higher peaks are wreathed in dark green pines.”  It is the third largest island in Greece.   In shape it resembles Mt. Desert Island, both having a clam shell shape that is cut in the center.   I suppose the comparisons stop there, although both seem to have been fonts of artistic, poetic, and philosophical work.

Lesbos/Lesvos, Greece (home of Sappho)

Mt. Desert Island, Maine (home of Acadia)

There is some hint of the cartographical, or what I am now calling the huacaslogical, in the writing that happened this day ten years ago.  The focus is on Zarathustra’s descent, his going under, and the meditation is prompted by the question: “What is the Way that Zarathustra conveys with his going under?”

When I was editing the material I circled the capitalized ‘W’ in Way, as if to suggest making it a lowercase ‘w’, but it was published with the cap.  There is an obvious indexical reference to Lao Tzu, and perhaps even Parmenides – is there a term for an overlapping, or multisided indexical reference?  I’ve borrowed the term ‘index’ from the jazz jargon, which defines ‘indexing’ as the playing of a notable phrase from a widely known tune, e.g., the principle melody line, while in the midst of a solo.   It is a way of gathering the listeners into the performance, and also connecting the performance of something new with the existing song book.   An ‘indexical reference’ as I’m using it, is not a mere citation or quotation, which would usually be qualified in the form of “As [X] says…”  It is more subtle, and tries to achieve some nuance, and, in many cases, is indexing material that has been taken up in prior meditations.   The ‘Way’ is an example of a category that has been taken up extensively; with chapter 3 having the title ‘The Way of Lao Tzu.’   And the index only works if the ‘W’ is capitalized!

As for the question that organized the meditation, and the indexing of ‘Way’, it is moved along by the verb ‘convey’.  Zarathustra has a bearing, an existential modality, that of the listener, first, and the speaker, second, and he discloses this in his descent.    The Way is conveyed:  it is transported or carried to a place.  The manner of the carrying is one part of the meditation, and is, in fact, a thread that runs through the entire project.  But where is the place he is going?  Where is he descending?  Where is the under that he is going to?  

The etymology of ‘convey’ offers a clue to understanding the writing on 9/19/04:  from medieval Latin conviare, from con- ‘together’ + Latin via ‘way.’  If we reduce his ‘conveying’ to carrying, we limit the scope of the meditation.  We have to thinking Way, convey and going under together.   And the medieval Latin roots help us do this:  con and via.  Together-Way.   This is how we can think the place where Zarathustra is descending.   The place is described in the meditation as “the boundless boundary constituted by those innumerable pathways sheltered within the open region.”   [This fragment is a highly condensed set of terms that have been worked out in the 200+ meditations that precede it!]  The Together-Way is the boundless boundary, which is made of innumerable pathways, the paths of thinking that take us to the clearings.   If the pathways take us to the clearings then how is it that the collection of pathways is sheltered within the open region?  

The ‘open region’ is here standing in for what I have called the primal ground, or the originary ground, and it is the destination of the Together-Way, which is not ‘reached’ in a linear way of talking, but, nevertheless, can be described as the destiny.   What is meant here by ‘destiny’ is not the commonly used meaning of that term that falls under fatalism.   Although in some sense it does, insofar as this ‘destiny’ is inescapable.   But ‘destination’ better denotes this ‘destiny’ that is the open region, the primal and originary ground.  Again, some etymology is helpful, especially when we see that the roots of ‘destiny’ are Latin destinata, feminine past participle of destinare ‘make firm, establish.’  The primal and originary ground makes firm and establishes the ontology of the listening/speaking being that we are.  The Together-Way is the dialogic unfolding of human existence.  It is not the only one, but, from an existential perspective, it is the significant form of learning.   The destinata of human being qua learner is the Together-Way.

Hence, the meditation from this day concludes: “With outstretched hands Zarathustra goes under and offers his speeches, the honey, the ‘food for thought,’ that gets learning underway by enjoining others in close listening.” (Being and Learning, p. 214)